The Truth About St. Patrick

St. Patrick is considered as the Patron Saint of Ireland. There are many, though, in Ireland that hold him in disdain. These people will never celebrate his legacy or life. It has been stated that St. Patrick rid Ireland of all of its snakes. Scientists have found that Ireland had not had snakes since icebergs surrounded the island. What could then be meant by the old legend?
Before Christianity began to spread into Ireland, the Druids were the leading religious figures in Ireland. One of the symbols of the Druids was a snake. In Christianity, the snake symbolized the devil.

According to the legend, St. Patrick stamped his staff on the ground to rid the snakes out of Ireland. The snakes that were sent from the island were the Druids.

During the seventh century, the Christian Church taught its missionaries that if they could not convert any natives, they were to use any means necessary to convert the nonbelievers.

The Druids were not interested in giving up their old ways and converting to Christianity. St. Patrick is said to have lead to the murders of almost eight hundred Druid priests and priestesses.

As he would walk by a Druid who would not convert, he would stamp his staff and walk away. His flowers would then attack and kill the nonbeliever.

In Irish folklore, there is a story of a she-beast that St. Patrick banished to Lough Derg (Red Lake). There is an island in the middle of Lough Derg that is called St. Patrick's Purgatory. It is said that the she-beast called Caoranach was sent to this island.

It was said that there was a woman who followed St. Patrick very closely, but no one ever knew her name. After St. Patrick stated that he had banished the she-beast, this woman was never seen again.

There was an Irish documentary writer who looked into the theory that St. Patrick may have killed a lover on the island in Lough Derg. In 1998, the writer had a team sent into the water to fish around for evidence. I woman's mummified remains were found in the muck under the water.

Another interesting piece of info is that snakes were also prominent in Greek mythology and were considered good. Apollo lorded over many areas and one of those was medicine/healing. The animal that assisted him was a snake... hence that symbol you always see on hospitals with the two intertwining snakes.

Back when humanity was making a transition from Greek/Roman mythology to Christianity, many symbols that were considered good were demonized in order to successfully weed out G/R mythology. Obviously, the snake was banished in the Garden of Eden because, God forbid, he was encouraging the two humans to THINK.

Another character to be noted in Greek mythology is the Satyr, Pan. He was actually a character people believed was good, even if perhaps a bit too fun-loving. Well, during the transition, he came to embody Satan himself... thus demonizing a creature of old lore. And Pan's name is actually the root of the word "panic", which also has negative connotations.

>Back when humanity was making a transition from Greek/Roman mythology to Christianity, many symbols that were considered good were demonized in order to successfully weed out G/R mythology.

That's interesting. I remember learning, I think in one my philosophy classes, that early Christians adopted the image of Zeus for Yahweh to make the transition from pagan to Christian a little more acceptable.

I've read that too Pam. Some symbols or images or representations where converted to make transition easier. Many of the things that became 'evils' were either things that the new church could not fit into their religious dogma; or groups that continued practicing their beliefs. This last is how the pentagram came to be villainized; ceremonies involving it continued to take place so the church associated it with devil worship.

Good note on the snakes Cara. That's an interesting one, since judaism (and christianity) managed to villainize snakes, but it also managed to sneak into medicine as a good symbol.

Well, I'm wearing green, and decorating my house with spring flowers and leprechauns for the following reasons:
St. Patrick was associated with blue, not green. Green symbolizes the Druids he had slaughtered, as do the flowers. And of course, his being a good Christian, he would NEVER have approved of glorifying such pagan creatures as Leprechauns... ;-)